Finished apart from the Flag… what colour should it be?

I have still got to add the bushes to the bases and possibly paint the flag a different colour but otherwise I am calling theses done.

It was quite handy having only half a dozen bases to do this time.

One last random photo….

They are never going to win any prizes, but I am wanting them done and out of the way as they have sat there for far too long.

Still about the same total amount to do, but I am going to have to change gear and move onto my HOTT army next as I need it by 10th November.

I have decided on a Conquistador force. Not sure of the composition yet, but I am seriously thinking about Leonardo Da Vinci’s tank from Alternative Armies to act as a Behemoth.

It is definitely in keeping with the army type.

I could probably knock something up myself but for speed I think I will just buy one.

So 15mm for the next week or two, then back to the 10’s.

I managed to get quite a long way with these today…

They have got a flag for the simple reason, some oik was trying to cut a groove in a hand to take a pin. I was going to add a yak tailed banner, except my attempt at a groove took off the whole forearm when my hand slipped! Queue Greenstuff flag instead of banner.

There are some depictions in historical documents of them having flags, so that is my excuse and I am sticking to it!

A different view. I will probably tone down the yellow on the clothing and scabbards etc as it is a little in your face.

This picture is of the flag, before it went all floppy and naff looking.

It is now propped up to try and hold some form of dynamic shape

I would like to get these finished tomorrow as I have decided to paint up a different army for the Hordes if the Things tournament. I think I will go for Conquistador, with a bit of a fantasy twist… there is a list in the rule book which should make things easier.

There are enough different figures to choose from…

I am still undecided as to whether or not to paint all of them or just enough for 24 points worth for the tournament???

We shall see tomorrow….

I made a start on the next lot….

Sand down and sealed with watered down PVA.

Once dried these were brush undercoated with Bay Brown B.

Once these are dried I will get a start on the horses. I might give them a black wash to bring out the detail a bit more.

Tonight we had a bash at Horde of the Things. We are having a tournament on 10th November and had a reminder game. As four of us were going to have a go we had a two on two game,

Unfortunately my partner over extended onto my right flank and 70% of their force were unable to take part as their dice rolls were dire and they put some troops too far away in rough terrain that reduced their effectiveness.

I managed a single photo.

My dwarves face off against a combined force of Martians and fantasy Babylonians … three bases of Early Germans ( 6 points out of 24) are on my right flank. Needless to say, things didn’t go all my way… AKA I lost, but In fairness my general and his general both died in their epic struggle.

The mat, was a work around as everyone thought someone else was bringing the proper game mats!

It was a good game, but I am glad I had the refresher game.

Next question is what force do I field. In 15mm I have Early German, both straight historical and fantasyesque with bat swarms, shamans and werewolves. My dwarves as seen above and an undead army. I have got some conquistadors and Aztecs to paint up, but to be honest they may go on EBay as they, like a lot of things are just sitting there. Not to mention that the tournament is on 10th November.

The theme this year is ‘Here be Dragons’… therefore every force must have at least one Behemoth.

I have a few useful miniatures that would work, dragons and Giants are two that are painted and ready to be added into a force.

If I did paint up my Aztec troops I have a very nice winged serpent that would work as their Behemoth.

Choices, choices, choices!

Huzzah they are all done!

I decided on a spring offensive look to the bases. It is a bit in the bright side, but I decided to go with it to give a bit of contrast to the horses.

I might add some mini tufts that I have, we shall see how many I have and what colours they are.

The flock is still pretty much wet in this photograph. Once it is all dry tomorrow I will seal it in and then get the miniatures varnished (something I forget quite often).

I also shoved some sand onto my Medium cavalry. These are my next lot.

Only 6 bases worth so hopefully shouldn’t take that long.

There are ten or eleven of the heavies, each base has four figures on it.

Then there will be around six infantry bases and a similar number of civilians.

I will have something for my knights to fight now. I am a bit tempted by the TB line of Eastern Europeans, they would look rather good fighting the Mongols.

Getting there..

Tonight I did the spears , quivers and scabbards that were still unpainted.

They are nearly finished… some highlights to sort out and a quick once over to see if there are any glaring errors. Bases to finish. I was going to paint them, but to be honest I like them the way they are. I will add flock and tufts but leave the sand as is.

A couple more random pictures…

Tonight’s painting was brought to you by YouTube, the internet was stable enough to watch a couple of documentaries on the Mongols.

Once these are done I will blast on with the medium cavalry, then the heavies as these are already glued to their bases. After that onto the civilians and foot archers.

I have roughly the same again to paint, if not slightly more.

Now the pondering… most things I have read gave the armoured troops armour as covered with pitch, lots of black. Part of me wants a bit of colour in. Therefore I feel a bit more research is required.

Before I got down to painting I watched the remake of Dad’s Army. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The casting for the different parts was pretty much inspired, with the possible exception of Fraser, who for some reason to me seemed out of kilter. Maybe his accent wasn’t as strong as the original John Laurie. The vicar was the spitting image of the original. My next task is to see who he is. The best nod to the original was having Ian Lavender (the original Pike) as a member of the HQ.

I really worried about how they might spoil my childhood memories of me and my brother sitting with my dad, who had actually been in the Home Guard. He would tell us about their escapades and how the platoon had a load of ex soldiers in it who were good at their jobs

I needn’t have worried!

My dad front row and grandad second row.

This is the Greenside Home Guard round about 1944. Unfortunately my dad’s eyesight and memory were going by time we found this. Sadly the few names we did have, which was about half, were lost when my mother passed away.

It reminds me of the line in the ‘Green Fields of France’

Or are you a stranger without even a name, 
Enclosed in forever behind the glass frame, 
In an old photograph, torn, battered and stained, 
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame? 

And that’s me all emotional again …

Minuscule amount done tonight.

I painted the swords and nothing else.

I went to see The Predator tonight. Sadly no Arnie, but a couple of nods to both film 1 and 2 of the franchise. They also use the immortal line…’get to the choppers’ I enjoyed it, but to be honest some bits made absolutely no sense. I won’t spoil it but every so often I went 🙄😲🙄😲.

A totally different film to the first and most definitely the second as they know the Predators exist, based on finds and intel from film 1 and 2.

Still an extremely high body count but I actually found myself wanting certain people to survive.

Some of the scenes were really funny and really well done.

All in all a very enjoyable couple of hours at the cinema. Overlord looks like it might be worth a shufti at. Weird Wars in WW2.

Lordy, these are taking forever…

To speed things up a bit, I didn’t do every bridle. Some of the brown horses and bay horses have theirs missed off. Basically because a brown rein on a brown horse is not visible at long range, therefore at this scale they aren’t visible either.

Highlights done in the blue, red and cream oh and the skin tone too, but in that case I think I overdid it.

Still to do spears and swords and a highlight on the bows. A wash in the hats and most of the quivers need painting too.

Still a long way to go, but feel like I am over another hump.

Tonight’s painting was brought to you by:

A bit of a rip roaring monster film based on an arcade gam3 from the 80’s. Well to be honest the game passed me by. I did however enjoy the film.

Tonight the boys watched Rampage and the girls the Greatest Showman.

Tomorrow I am off to see the new Predator film… we shall see what we think of that.

Bridles and breaching…

Or in other words… whose stupid bloody idea was that.

This has taken for ever… but once I started I had to keep going. Two hours later and it seems like I have got nowhere. Green and blue done for the bow pouch. Still over half of the bridles etc to do.

I really wished that I hadn’t started ☹️

Today’s painting was brought to you by:

Not the most accurate portrayal of 10000 BC… but a jolly jape none the less

The kids got to spend their pocket money today, my youngest chose Lego, as per usual, and a happy chap he was. However he got excited to get started and emptied all of the bags out. This in turn meant it took twice as long to build.

We got there in the end and the Mech was built.

Tomorrow I shall carry on with the bridles…

Now with faces…

I also painted the hats, the effect isn’t obvious from the front.

It can however, be seen much better from the back.

I went for two distinct units of two. I could mix and match them as required, but at least I will be able to see which base belongs to which unit.

I also did a bit of research into Mongol horses.

Very few have a blaze, but for artistic reasons I will leave mine as are.

Tonight’s painting was brought to you by:

Another film I really enjoy… my Mongol horde can act as the Tao Tei…or is it the other way around. 😉

Still a fair way to go but they are beginning to look good en masse. And they don’t look too bad from a distance.

Still to do are the weapons, quivers, boots and the occasional bit I have missed. I am seriously considering missing out the bridles and straps.

All of the bows will be bleached bone, spears monster brown or similar. The next question is do I do all the quivers the same colour to speed things up or do I mix them up a bit….